Martin House

- Moved - Unexposed (Check One) X Original Site The Martin House, c.1799, sits elegantly atop Chestnut Hill in Seekonk, overlooking a landscape of gently rolling farmland and the Palmer River. A fine example of an elegant Federal mansion, it is five bays wide. Originally all clapboard, it is now covered on two sides with white clap- board and on two other sides with white shingles. It is topped by a hip roof with one chimney set in from either side. The house foundation and entrance steps are granite faced with brownstone. The main frame of the house is made up of handhewn 7" x 7" pegged oak members; the 3"x4" studding is tenoned into the main frame at 20" intervals, and the bracing is morticed and tenoned into the major uprights. The house has been altered considerably on the exterior.

In 1880 a covered veranda was added on the east side. At the same time, the rear entrance with pediment and fluted pilasters was removed so that a kitchen ell could be added on the north side. The ell was designed in the Federal style with a gable roof and two dormers. It is two bays deep, three bays long, and is quoined at the corners.Also in 1880 the original six over six window sashes were changed to two over two, the shutters were removed from all but the facade, and shingle replaced clapboard on the east and north elevations. In 1957 seven original dormers and an 18' square monitor were removed fxom the roof along with the Chinese Chippendale style ballustrade. The. elegant roof entablature consists of Greek fretwork topped by shallow flared brackets and a boxed cornice.

On the east side of Chestnut Hill, surrounded by farmland and overlooking the Palmer River, stands the magnificent home of Simeon Martin. The 1799 house is architecturally significant not only because/it is a city mansion in a rural farm setting, but because it is the only Federal mansion in Seekonk. Most of the elegant exterior woodwork and all of the interior woodwork have been preserved, and the interior cornice and chair- rail mouldings have been sited by Antoinette Downing as unique to this house. Historically, the house is significant because both Simeon Martin and his father were 'involved in state and local government, silvanus as a Rehoboth selectman and Simeon as the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island.

In 1799 Simeon Martin returned from service in the Revolutionary War and began a political career in Newport, R.I. In the same year, he went to Rehoboth (which became Seekonk in 1812) and built his house on the family property where he had grown up. His father, Silvanus Martin, whose house was dismantled in the early 20th c., had been a gentleman farmer and se lectman of Rehoboth for twenty years. while the architect and craftsmen of the Martin House are unknown, it is likely that Simeon brought them from Newport, as the house resembles, in style and detail, many other Federal mansions in Newport. It is also unknown why Martin built such an elegant Federal mansion in the farm area of Rehoboth.

Perhaps he did not anticipate a long political career in Newport, but nevertheless, Martin did spend the next seventeen years in political service in Newport, renting the house out to his brothers in the meanwhile. During the period 1799-1819, Simeon Martin held the offices of Adjutant General and Major General of the State of Rhode Island.